Tag Archives: downloads

Los Angeles band ‘Rage Against the Machine’ (RATM) has just secured the Christmas number one in the United Kingdom (UK) music charts. Following a viral social networking campaign, more than half a million people downloaded the seventeen year old expletive laden anti-authoritarian track ‘Killing in the Name’, in an orchestrated attempt to prevent an act from the ‘X-Factor’ television show becoming number one for the fifth consecutive year.

From a social psychology perspective, it is interesting to note how the two groups of supporters differed in terms of preferred purchase medium, namely download versus compact disc. Consequently, group membership can be seen to be polarised in terms of factors such as technically literacy, age, conservatism, and so on.

This ‘battle’ culminated in a live performance by RATM on BBC breakfast radio being abruptly faded out when the famously anti-establishment band embarked on the song’s climactic barrage of swearing despite, rather ironically given the lyrics, having “been told not to” by the BBC.

Whilst ‘sticking it to the man’ in this way may be viewed as a triumph for anti-corporate ‘people power’, it is somewhat debatable who the real winner from from this ‘chart war’ actually was.

Since X-Factor champion Joe McElderry and RATM are actually both Sony artists, however, the multi-national mega-label will have benefited from the overall increased volume of sales irrespective of who became number one. Furthermore, corporations have previously exploited or created such apparent ‘grass-roots’ movements by means of ‘viral marketing campaigns’ and ‘street teams’.

As a previous commentator on the strange relationship between the corporate music industry and bands purporting to subvert society once said, “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” (Lydon, 1978).

Alternatively, perhaps the real winners are, in fact, the homeless, since the charity Shelter that supports them received donations of around £70,000 through the RATM campaign. Interestingly, such pro-social altruism is typically not a characteristic that many would associate with young music fans, who are commonly stereotyped in the tabloid press as selfish and anti-social. Furthermore, RATM have also pledged to donate their royalties to the charity.

On that seasonally appropriate positive note, I wish you all “Merry Christmas!” *<|:{)}